Farm Soil Conservation Project Hits Pay Dirt

A federal project to conserve farm soil in southeastern Pennsylvania by encouraging farmers to employ erosion controls has doubled the amount of soil saved from 1984 to 1985.

The Mason-Dixon Erosion Control Project saw the amount of soil it has saved rise from 380,000 tons in 1984, its first year, to 750,000 tons last year.

The project is sponsored by the U.S. Soil Conservation Service.

Under the project, service conservationists identify areas and farms suffering severe soil erosion in 14 southeastern counties, including Bucks, Montgomery, Berks, Lehigh and Northampton. They then seek to convince the farmers to begin using erosion controls.

"It's really just a selling job. The guy might say 'no' and that's the end of it," Soil Conservationist Billy F. Lucas said Tuesday.

Among the conservation measures they sell are no-till planting, which eliminates plowing; contour planting, the planting of alternate strips of two crops to disrupt water flow, and diversion terraces, which direct water onto pastures or other grassy lands, Lucas said.

The project has been aided by the rising price of fertilizers, which some farmers use to enrich eroded soils, and by an increased attention among farmers to the problem of water pollution caused by field runoff.

In terms of soil saved per acre, the amount rose to 8.3 tons last year from 6.3 tons in 1984, Lucas said.

While he is optimistic that the amount of soil conserved will rise this year, Lucas said the gains will not be as dramatic. "I hope we'll increase our tonnage per acre," he said. "It's going to be harder."

The project, which also includes eight counties in Maryland along the Mason-Dixon line, was begun because erosion was affecting the ability of some farmers to grow crops, Lucas said.

The counties in Pennsylvania are the state's premier agricultural area, with 26,000 farms and 2.5 million acres of farmland.